Fluorescently labeled bacteria provide insight on post-mortem microbial transmigration

AbstractMicrobially mediated mechanisms of human decomposition begin immediately after death, and are a driving force for the conversion of a once living organism to a resource of energy and nutrients. Little is known about post-mortem microbiology in cadavers, particularly the community structure of microflora residing within the cadaver and the dynamics of these communities during decomposition. Recent work suggests these bacterial communities undergo taxa turnover and shifts in community composition throughout the post-mortem interval. In this paper we describe how the microbiome of a living host changes and transmigrates within the body after death thus linking the microbiome of a living individual to post-mortem microbiome changes. These differences in the human post-mortem from the ante-mortem microbiome have demonstrated promise as evidence in death investigations. We investigated the post-mortem structure and function dynamics of Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens after intranasal inoculation in the animal model Mus musculus L. (mouse) to identify how transmigration of bacterial species can potentially aid in post-mortem interval estimations. S. aureus was tracked using in vivo and in vitro imaging to determine colonization routes associated with different physiological events of host decomposition, while C. perfringens was tracked using culture-based techniques. Samples were collected at discrete time intervals associated with various physiological events and host decomposition beginning at 1h and ending at 60 days post-mortem. Results suggest that S. aureus reaches its highest concentration at 5–7 days post-mortem then begins to rapidly decrease and is undetectable by culture on day 30. The ability to track these organisms as they move in to once considered sterile space may be useful for sampling during autopsy to aid in determining post-mortem interval range estimations, cause of death, and origins associated with the geographic location of human remains during death investigations

Protecting the environment through insect farming as a means to produce protein for use as livestock, poultry, and aquaculture feed

Securing protein for the approximate 10 billion humans expected to inhabit our planet by 2050 is a major priority for the global community. Evidence has accrued over the past 30 years that strongly supports and justifies the sustainable use of insects as a means to produce protein products as feed for pets, livestock, poultry, and aquacultured species. Researchers and entrepreneurs affiliated with universities and industries, respectively, from 18 nations distributed across North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia contributed to the development of this article, which is an indication of the global interest on this topic. A brief overview of insects as feed for the aquaculture industry along with a review of the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), as a model for such systems is provided